🌐 Fashion’s Next Wave Isn’t Fast—It’s Faherty

Climate Adoption Archetype: 🎨 Lifestyle Upgrade
Make it aspirational.

Start with Materials. Operationalize Trust.

In 2004, I launched Vivavi—a modern design, sustainable furniture company. I was obsessed with a simple idea: could you create beautiful, environmentally friendly products that a mainstream consumer would covet, even if they didn’t care about saving the planet?

It felt like the key to mass adoption. I believed in it so deeply that I opened a New York City showroom in Brooklyn—in my apartment. I couldn’t afford both rent and retail, so I combined them. For four years, I lived in my store (you can see it in this clip from SundanceTV). 

Everything was going great—until I came back from lunch one day and discovered someone had purchased my bed.

Vivavi didn’t survive the Great Recession. I shut it down in 2009. But the core idea—that performance and desirability drive sustainable adoption—never left me.

That’s why I have so much respect for the entrepreneurs who pull it off. The ones who don’t just start the venture, but scale it—who overcome the odds.

This week, I spoke with Mike Faherty, co-founder, designer, and Chief Creative Officer of Faherty Brand. They didn’t follow the athleisure trend, streetwear playbook, or pitch a minimalist fashion tech story to VCs. Instead, they’re building a rare kind of American fashion brand: one where materials, not marketing, define the product.

Invent the Category. Then Own It.

Faherty operates in a lane they helped create: premium casual. 

Relaxed. Coastal. Rooted in surf culture. Refined enough for the city. Think a brand that feels like your favorite boutique hotel—not flashy, but unmistakably better. 

Mike launched Faherty in 2012 with his twin brother, Alex—who brought financial and operational discipline to match Mike’s creative drive—and Alex’s wife, Kerry, a human rights lawyer committed to embedding positive impact.

Thirteen years later, Faherty runs lean with just over 100 people at HQ. Yet, they’ve opened 80+ stores, grown to hundreds of millions in revenue, and are preparing for international expansion. All while retaining control over the product’s integrity and the company’s culture.

Adoption Starts in the Fabric

In 2023, 44% of Faherty’s carbon footprint came from materials. That’s where the climate impact resides in fashion—and where Faherty chooses to authentically lead. They don’t use sustainable materials for limited-run capsule collections. They build their bestsellers from the yarn up.

Their regenerative organic cotton comes from an Indigenous farm in the Amazon. Here’s how Mike described discovering this supply chain partner.

“It’s organic… oh my God. And then I can get it regenerative in a small farm. And it’s like so amazingly pure. And it’s funding a whole generation of families who can continue to grow it.” 

He continues, “We changed the whole t-shirt to be made regeneratively in no genome cotton It’s heavenly with the frijoles and the cacao. And they can support our volume.”

Faherty began making its’ signature t-shirts with regenerative organic cotton and is now expanding its use across the catalog.

The company co-develops every fabric with trusted mills. They visit in person. They share development costs. And they absorb short-term margin hits to prove these fabrics belong in your closet.

“Everything we make, we invent,” says Mike. “We don’t own the factory… but we own the result”. He continues, “We take it on the chin from a margin perspective—because we believe in it.”

That’s how you drive adoption of low-carbon materials: not as an obligation, but as an embedded lifestyle upgrade.

Partner on the Supply Chain. Own the Outcome.

Most fashion brands outsource the hard parts and offload the sustainability responsibility. Faherty does the opposite. Their supply chain runs on tight-knit relationships, shared commitments, and long-term trust.

“It’s a love affair,” says Mike. “You go there. You sit on the factory floor. You build it together. They trust us because we show up.”

It pays off. It’s what lets Faherty constantly trial new yarns. Rebuild bestsellers. Scale responsibly. And do it fast.

Culture Is the Operating Model

While material innovation drives the brand, it’s the internal culture that fuels business growth.

A 100-person HQ powers 80+ stores and a nationwide DTC brand. Designers stay accountable for how products show up at retail. Cross-functional teams own outcomes together. And long-tenured employees rise through the ranks.

Faherty doesn’t treat headcount as a marker of progress. They focus on getting the right people in the right seats—and building a company where collaboration stays fast, personal, and fun.

“One of the first things I wrote when I was starting this company was creating the company I always wanted to work at,” says Mike.

Who wouldn’t? That’s what every entrepreneur wants.  But Faherty figured out how to operationalize it.

• “Day One Mentality” is a core value.

• 20+ employees have been with the company for over six years.

• The Head of HR started as a store assistant while still in college.

• Designers stay responsible for how their products arrive in stores—and how they perform.

The team is lean by design—siloes are avoided. They run on an Entrepreneurial Operating System—a framework that keeps roles clear, priorities focused, and teams aligned.

“When it's quiet and people are kind of working alone in silos, it's just not that fun,” says Mike. “But when everyone's around a table laughing, joking, poking at each other, hyping each other up, it's electric!”

Faherty doesn’t worry about vanity metrics. They scale with clarity, conviction, and camaraderie.

Don’t Shout. Just Build.

Faherty doesn’t lead with sustainability messaging. No hangtag sermons. No guilt-driven ad copy.

“We’re not going to blast you with it,” Mike said. “Because it’s duh.”

And when customers discover what’s under the hood—the regenerative organic cotton, the relationship-driven sourcing, the data transparency in their Impact Report—they like the brand even more.

Adoption by the Numbers

• 72% of fibers met its internal “responsible materials” standard in 2024

• 70% of cotton is organic, recycled, Good Earth Cotton®, or Supima®

• 88% of polyester is recycled

• 84% of linen is EUROPEAN FLAX® certified

• 75% of viscose/rayon is responsibly sourced

• 11M+ plastic bags eliminated through Vela™ since 2021

• 100% target for responsible materials by 2030

Faherty has also moved into branded resale. Customers can buy, sell, or trade in used garments directly on its site through its Second Wave program.

Supercool Takeaway

Faherty scales by making sustainable clothing feel like the best thing in your closet, like a lifestyle upgrade.

Operator Takeaways

• Embed, don’t announce. Sustainability hits harder when it’s discovered, not declared.

• Start at the source. Rebuild from the raw material up—and don’t outsource the hard parts.

• Culture is leverage. With the right structure, a 100-person team can run a national brand.

• Define your category. Faherty didn’t slot into fashion. They made “premium casual” make sense.

This Week’s Podcast Episode

Fashion’s Next Wave Isn’t Fast—It’s Faherty

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other platforms.

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Stat of the Week: 2% to 10% (Maybe?)

Talk about a transparency issue? No one seems to know the actual carbon impact of the fashion industry. Credible sources like the UN Environment Programme cite ranges from 2% to 10%, but follow the reference link and you land on a page from Quantis, a BCG Company that offers no actual data.

[Got a more accurate number? Please share]

Quote of the Week:

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Related

Fashion Loves a Good Story—These Brands Have the Data to Back Them Up

More fashion brands are talking about sustainability. Few publish data that provides transparency.

These seven stand out for reporting what matters—emissions, materials, supply chain decisions—and backing it with third-party standards, circular programs, and public accountability.

1. Everlane

Everlane is working toward Net-Zero emissions by 2050, with a near-term goal to reduce per-product emissions by over 50% by 2030. The brand reports a 24% reduction in per-product emissions and a 38% total reduction in Scope 1–3 emissions compared to its 2019 baseline. Alongside climate targets, Everlane is transitioning all key materials—including cotton, wool, and synthetics—to certified responsible sources by the end of 2025.

2. Ecoalf

Headquartered in Spain, Ecoalf is driving toward Net‑Zero emissions by 2030, while rolling out carbon‑neutral stores globally. The brand has developed over 600 low-impact and recycled fabrics—introducing 100% recycled cotton collections and a “Made to be Re‑Made” mono-material strategy to enable circularity. As a GRS- and OCS-certified B Corp ranked in the top 5% globally, Ecoalf enforces rigorous material traceability and chemical safety standards.

3. Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi publishes an annual Impact Report as a certified B Corp, integrating climate action, circularity, and community impact. In 2023, the brand achieved 100% preferred materials across all principal fabrics and repaired 49% of eligible products through its Guaranteed for Good™ program. Cotopaxi has set science-aligned emissions targets—to cut Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 42% by 2030 and Scope 3 by 90% by 2045.

4. Veja

Radically transparent from the start, Veja discloses its full supplier list, emissions breakdowns, and audit outcomes. The brand uses organic cotton, Amazonian rubber, and recycled PET—and backs that up with B Corp certification, a take-back program, and Europe’s first sneaker repair workshop. Veja publicly tracks its Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, with 71% of its footprint attributed to raw materials, making material sourcing a central lever in its climate strategy.

5. Allbirds

Allbirds tracks the carbon footprint of every product using a third-party verified LCA tool and shares the data publicly. Its “Flight Plan” commits to halving emissions by 2025 and reaching near-zero by 2030 through a “Measure, Reduce, Remove” strategy. The brand leans into regenerative materials, ocean shipping, and supply chain decarbonization to reach those targets.

6. H&M

H&M ranks #1 among global fashion brands for climate action, according to Stand.earth’s 2025 Fossil-Free Fashion Scorecard. The company publishes detailed annual Sustainability Reports, aligned with science-based targets, aiming to reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 56% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. In 2024, it reduced operational emissions by 25%, sourced 96% of electricity from renewables, and supported supplier decarbonization across Asia. Nearly 90% of materials used are now recycled or sustainably sourced.

7. Patagonia

Patagonia has spent decades setting the standard for what responsible business can look like—often years ahead of the industry. Its climate goals are science-based and ambitious: an 80% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions and a 55% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030, with net-zero emissions across the full value chain by 2040. It’s already achieved 86% preferred materials in its Fall 2025 line. Over 90% of products are made in Fair Trade Certified™ factories, directly supporting 85,000+ workers.

Want to know how Patagonia integrates Used Clothing options into its e-commerce shopping experience? The technology partner behind it is Trove. I interviewed Terry Boyle on the Supercool podcast earlier this year.

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Where Supercool traveled this week:

Accoloades:

🌐 GoodPods: Supercool Ranked #1 Climate Tech and #4 ESG Podcast

Podcasts:

🌐 Awarepreneurs: To Sell Sustainability, Don’t Talk About Sustainability with Josh Dorfman

🌐 Coonut Thinking: Josh Dorfman — The Lazy Environmentalist (Not Really)

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